


no one outshines me, i'm louis tomlinson

by honestlyharry



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: And Honey, M/M, and louis, and the office uk, harry dresses as a bee for a living, harry likes ponds too, louis is a flop, louis likes ponds, niall is an idiot, nick grimshaw isn't gay, zayn makes too many dad jokes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-18
Updated: 2014-12-18
Packaged: 2018-03-02 01:57:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2795543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/honestlyharry/pseuds/honestlyharry
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>The boy smelt good. He smelt like cologne, and he smelt a bit like the coffee he had been making all day, but most of all he smelt like honey. Louis guessed that Harry must have actually been passionate about the product he had spent long days advertising in that lumbering bee costume while delinquent teenage chavs threw stones at him.</i>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>au where harry is a honey bee and louis is a fashion photographer who secretly hates himself</p>
            </blockquote>





	no one outshines me, i'm louis tomlinson

**Author's Note:**

> hiii i worked really hard on this i hope you enjoy it

Louis kept his head down as he walked through the busy streets of London. Car engines hummed around him in the rush hour traffic and the occasional beep of a horn managed to shock him every time.

The huge coat draped over him and thick scarf wrapped around his neck didn’t seem to be protecting him any from the cold but he didn’t care, he had accepted that he was destined to be cold and miserable for the rest of his life and had managed to get used to it, pretty much.

The day had been as hard as any, with Niall managing to tip water over his brand new lens and his model storming out mid-shoot when Niall (again) put too much milk in her coffee. God, Louis was so fed up of dealing with snooty rude people. Being a fashion photographer had always seemed so much better in his dreams as a naïve teenager.

He whipped his phone out of his pocket and was about to press send on a text to Zayn begging him to order takeaway, when his precious iPhone was knocked out of his hand as he collided with a giant, solid object.

It wasn’t until he had dropped to the ground, desperately flipped his baby over and determined with great relief that there was no damage done to the fragile screen, that he noticed that the object was not indeed an object, but a human being.

Dressed as a bee.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” the giant bee was murmuring as he crouched on his knees trying to collect…broken glass? Louis took note that the knees of the leggings the giant bee was wearing under his bee costume were soaked. He was knelt in a thick, sticky liquid. He had dropped and broken a jar of honey.

“Oh, um, it was my fault,” Louis stammered, voice low and quiet. “Should have been looking where I was going, sorry mate.”

“It’s okay, I work in the middle of Westminster, this isn’t the first time I’ve had my honey smashed.” Louis looked around them. They were in a quieter place now, a residential street quite close to Louis’ flat.

“It ain’t that busy mate.”

“I usually work near the shops but I’m heading home now. Not many people are interested in hearing about honey at this time of night, plus it’s dark. Can’t see the proper colour. It’s usually quite a beautiful, deep orange, they make it in-”

“Alright mate, alright,” Louis chuckled awkwardly. He tried to get a proper look at the giant bee’s face, but it was difficult in the dark. The giant bee was actually a boy; he seemed a bit younger than Louis, maybe not even out of his teens. But Louis was _barely_ out of his teens – at least that’s what he convinced himself. The bee boy had a stunning mixture of chiselled cheekbones and a soft, kind face. Louis was sure he might have been cute if he wasn’t a dork dressed as a bee.

“Sorry,” the bee sighed. “Be careful of the glass.”

He stood up and rushed away, a plastic Tesco bag full of broken glass swinging beside him. Louis noticed he had a slight limp. He went home.

(◕‿◕✿)

 

“Where have you been?! Dinner’s been ready for five minutes!”

Louis turned around from shutting the door and looked into Zayn’s slightly red, very angry face. He sighed and waved away his takeaway cravings.

“Sorry Zayn, got stung by a bee. What we having?”

“Steak and chips. And what do you mean you got stung by a bee? Are you alright?”

Louis hung his coat over the useless third chair that was used for coats - seeing as they never actually had guests who sat down and ate dinner with them – and fell into his usual chair without bothering to wash his hands or offer to help Zayn with anything, or reply to his question about the bee.

“Louis, I have a first aid kit, do I need to pull the sting out?” Zayn worried as he placed Louis’ plate in front of him. “Oh god, the poor thing’s probably dead now, you must have really threatened-”

“Calm down for crying out loud, I didn’t get stung by anything. I just bumped into this guy wearing a bee costume. Really weird actually…Dropped his honey everywhere.”

“Oh! Harry?” Zayn asked as he plopped himself into his own seat with his own plate of steak and chips, a sudden bright smile on his face.

“Uh…You know the giant bee?”

“Oh, sure! He’s always there when I go to work, stands just outside the café singing jingles about honey. Cute isn’t he?”

“Cute?” Louis spluttered. “He’s…He’s a dork! He dresses up as a bee every day! Who does that?”

“Um, Louis,” Zayn was looking across at Louis with an amused look on his face and a chip hanging out of his mouth. He swallowed it. “That’s his _job_. He doesn’t stand around the streets of London dressed as a bee for _fun_!”

“Oh.” Louis took a bite of steak, feeling slightly red in his face. He instantly spat it out. “Zayn, this is disgusting, I’m ordering Chinese.”

Zayn looked a bit hurt for a second, and then he pushed his plate away. “Get me chicken fried rice.”

(◕‿◕✿)

Tuesday was just as horrible as Monday had been. Louis tried to contain his rage as he walked home through the frosty streets, going over the day’s events in his head.

Firstly, Niall had dropped Louis’ best camera’s lens cap and it had rolled under an enormous cabinet, which had taken three men to move and resulted in a broken foot that Louis would almost certainly be sued over. Then the stupid Irish boy had managed to break the coffee machine and send coffee beans flying all around the kitchen. Niall had broken three more kitchen appliances in his attempt to make lunch before Louis had sent him home in a fit of rage and decided to be his own assistant for the day. He definitely needed to hire someone new.

“What’s your favourite toast spread?”

Louis jolted like Niall after he’d tried to fish a sausage out of the toaster with a fork, and clutched his chest with his tiny hand.

“Fuck, you scared me!”

“Do you like honey?” A slow and deep voice asked him. “‘Cos we do some great honey at the Westminster Honey Company. We’ve got a lot of different varieties, we’ve got your normal every day honey but we’ve also got blueberry honey, we’ve got woodsage, we’ve got-”

“Listen, I’m not interested.”

“Oh, well, if butter’s more your thing, we have a few varieties of-”

“Harry!”

The giant bee boy’s face fell. He went from slightly excited about honey to quite downtrodden, and then to a little confused. “Hey, how do you know my-”

Harry was cut off abruptly by a solid object hitting him in the head. Luckily, he was protected by a black and yellow striped hat with antennae’s, but that didn’t seem to make much of a difference. He winced and rubbed the side of his head where he’d gotten hit.

“What was that?” Louis gasped. “Are you alright?”

Suddenly the giant bee was pelted with more stones. He seemed to be the victim of an attack, and Louis desperately looked round for the perpetrators. He found them running up from the end of the street; a group of youths with great throwing arms and great aim, who managed to hit the bee boy all over from quite a distance.

Louis grabbed his hand, and ran.

(◕‿◕✿)

“Listen, I’m not usually a nice guy,” Louis cleared up as he unlocked the door to his flat. “Especially to strangers in bee costumes ribbing me about my favourite breakfast foods, but I didn’t want you to…I don’t know, _die_ or anything. So you can hang out here until you think you’re in the clear. But it’s not gonna happen again. Understand.”

“Y-Yeah, I understand.” Harry’s voice was significantly less confident than it had been when he’d been telling Louis about his company’s selection of spreads. When Louis took his shoes off, Harry did the same, and Louis looked up at him – yes, up; this guy was a fucking giant compared to Louis – with a cocky smirk.

“Alright, don’t get too comfortable,” he chuckled.

“Sorry, I’m sorry,” Harry muttered at great speed, fumbling to get his thin, fabric, black and yellow shoes back on. God, he really wasn’t holding back on this bee costume.

“I was joking mate, take your little bee shoes off.”

Harry seemed quite frazzled by all the mixed messages, and ripped off his little bee shoes and sat them next to Louis’ normal human shoes. He followed Louis like a Labrador as Louis unwrapped his scarf, unbuttoned his heavy Saint Laurent coat and peeled it off, taking his suit jacket with it. Harry kept his giant bee costume on, otherwise he probably would have been dressed indecently for a stranger’s flat.

“Why are you wearing that suit?” Harry asked. “I-I mean…What job do you do, that makes you wear a suit?”

Louis scoffed. “What job do _you_ do that makes you wear a _bee costume_?”

“I work for Westminster Honey Company!” Harry grinned. “We do all different sorts of honey, we’ve got your normal every day honey, we’ve got woodsage, we’ve-”

“Yeah Harry, we’ve been through this.”

“We’ve even got blueberry!” he boasted. “And…You never told me how you know my name.”

Louis grabbed an armful of coats and jackets off the back of the spare chair at the dining table and dumped them on the sofa, which was only a couple of feet away in their tiny, cramped apartment, then pulled the chair out and gestured for Harry to sit. Harry tried to squeeze his bee costume into the chair, which was pressed pretty close to a wall.

“My roommate knows you,” Louis shrugged. “Works in a café you shout your honey shit outside of sometimes, I guess.”

“You _guess_?”

“Okay, well I _know,_ but-”

“Are you making toast?”

Louis looked down at the toaster he was slipping two slices of bread into. “Yeah. You want some?”

“Have you got any honey?”

“No, but we have Nutella and-”

“Don’t worry about it! I’ve got plenty.” Harry slipped his backpack off and sat it in his lap, digging through it. “I’ve got your normal every day honey, I’ve got-”

“You’ve got woodsage, you’ve got blueberry, you’ve got butter…”

“Yeah. Do you want to try some?”

“Think I’ll stick with Nutella.”

“Okay. Can I put some on mine, though?”

“Well I’m not gonna stop you,” Louis laughed. His toast popped up. “One or two slices?”

“Just one please.”

“Coming right up!” He got two separate plates out of the cupboard, examined them, determined they were clean enough, and put the toast on them. He got two knives and placed one next to a slice of toast. He passed that plate to Harry before getting the Nutella out of the cupboard.

“Thanks,” Harry uttered quietly. “Um, excuse me?”

“Yes?”

“I, uh, I don’t know your name…”

“Oh. Sorry. I’m Louis, Louis Tomlinson. You may have heard of me.”

“Um…No, sorry.”

Louis huffed and threw his plate of toast down on the table. “I’m a fashion photographer. I wouldn’t expect you to know me, dressed in that ugly costume.”

“You act like it’s a fashion choice, Louis. It’s my job.” Harry had a slight smile on his face but he sounded quite serious. As the boy spread blueberry honey on his toast, Louis enjoyed the opportunity to get a good look at him, now he was seeing him under the artificial light of his kitchen, rather than the dark streets of Westminster.

He still had high cheekbones, that hadn’t changed. And he still had a soft face. But his soft face was rough with scrapes and fading bruises that made Louis wince. Were these all made by those stupid teenagers throwing stones? His hair was dark brown and long, brushing his shoulders, and his eyes were large and green. He was actually quite cute to be completely honest, but Louis wasn’t gonna let himself fall for an annoying stranger in a bee costume.

The boys were distracted by the sound of someone trying to unlock the door, realising it was already unlocked, and swinging it open.

“Hi Zayn.”

“Oh, hey Louis. You’re home early…And you’ve brought a giant bee with you. You know I’m scared of bees!” he laughed.

“Enough with the dad jokes,” Louis huffed. He stood up and slid his half eaten slice of Nutella toast off the plate and into the bin. Zayn instantly took his place in Louis’ seat, even though Zayn’s own seat was right fucking next to it.

“Niall fucked up at least twelve times today so I sent him home, and then I got fed up of being my own assistant and cut the day a bit short. And then I was a knight in shining armour for a bee being attacked by a group of delinquents.”

“Just a normal day in the life of Louis Tomlinson then!” Zayn quipped, amused by his own humour, as per usual. “So are you alright Harry? I thought they weren’t bothering you anymore, since you chose your new spot.”

“They find me on my way home,” Harry whispered, head down, blueberry honey toast ignored. “It’s got worse since I moved, really. They’re angry with me for trying to run away.”

“God, I fucking hate teenagers these days,” Zayn grunted, hands curled into furious fists.

“Heeey,” Harry drawled.

“You’re nineteen Harry, hardly counts a teenager.”

Harry had a smile on his face then, as if he was proud of being nineteen-but-not-a-teenager. Louis tried to ignore them as he stacked his plate on top of the many other dirty plates in the sink, but Harry’s smile was…kind of mesmerising?

“You honestly need a new job mate. You need to get off the streets, it’s not safe for you, they’re never gonna stop bullying you.”

“It’s not that easy!” Harry cried. His expression indicated that he instantly regretted raising his voice, even by just a little. “I…I don’t have any qualifications, no one will hire me.”

Zayn sighed and laced his fingers together, slumping back in his seat. He looked defeated for a few moments, until a suspicious smirk rose on his face. “Hey, Louis?”

“What?” Louis grunted, throwing himself in Zayn’s seat and burying his head in his hands.

“You said the other day you wanted to find a replacement for Niall, right?”

“Yeah, I guess, but…Wait. No, no, no, no, no. _He”_ Louis pointed an accusing finger at Harry, “is _not_ going to be my new assistant. He looks even more useless than Niall, for crying out loud!”

Harry ducked his head so his face was hidden, but Louis swore he could see his eyes shining with tears, but he didn’t feel guilty…Did he?

“Louis, come on, give him a chance.”

“No. There’s no way. And that’s final.”

(◕‿◕✿)

“What are you doing, Mr. Tomlinson? What’s on that flyer? Is it about cats, have you lost your cat?”

“I don’t have a cat, Niall. I’m advertising a job.”

“Oh. What job?”

Louis ran a hand through his hair and took deep breaths to stop himself for snapping at his poor, stupid, soon-to-be-ex assistant. “An assistant job.”

“Oh. You got another studio or something? Cos I got a mate, I bet he’d love to be your assistant!”

Louis tried not to recoil at the thought of having another stupid studio with another stupid Niall. “Nope, it’s for this studio.”

“Huh? Why do you need two assistants?”

“I don’t.”

“So why are you-”

“I’m replacing you, Niall. Okay? I’m replacing you.”

“Oh.” Niall went silent for a while. Louis thanked the gods. “Is it because I made Cara Delevingne cry? I honest to god thought she was pregnant, Mr. Tomlinson!”

“No, Niall, it’s not that.”

“So it’s the thing with Karlie Kloss? That was an accident, Mr. Tomlinson, I just…I just…”

“I’m sorry Niall, but you’re just not what I’m looking for. You’re a bit…Well you’re not very put together, are you? Not very organised…And that’s exactly what an assistant needs to be. Hell, you turned up 12 hours late yesterday because you forgot whether you started at 7am or 7pm!”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, oh. You want me to send your last pay packet to your flat?”

“Yeah, please,” Niall sighed in his stupid Irish accent. “Do you want me to leave, like, now?”

“Yeah, please. And don’t worry about the coffee machine, I’ll replace it myself.”

Louis watched Niall leave and then locked up the studio. He’d already hung one flyer just outside the door, and he decided that seeing as it was four o’clock and all he had to do this afternoon was edit photos of Barbara Palvin he would just go home, putting up some more flyers along the way.

He sellotaped a few flyers to lamp posts, even though he was pretty sure that was illegal now, and then decided enough was enough and he would just advertise online. He tucked the flyers away into his manbag and dug his scarf out, wrapping it tight around his neck. It was nearly Christmas and it was freezing in London which just made Louis’ job even harder as his studio didn’t have central heating.

He decided to take a detour home. Not only was it a shortcut, but it also meant he could avoid the place that he always seemed to bump into Harry the giant bee. He would take that way every day, but it was through back alleys that Louis was quite frankly terrified of after the sun had set.

He kept his head up, looking out for any dangers, aka dirty chavvy teenage boys with nothing else to do apart from shout abuse at innocent people and throw stones at guys dressed like bees. He was so close to getting out of the alley when he suddenly found himself faceplanting the floor.

“Ouch, shit, ouch, what the fuck!” he cried as he pulled himself to his feet and dusted off the knees of his very expensive jeans.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” a low, fragile voice murmured desperately.

“Shit, mate, what are you doing on the- Harry?” Louis didn’t recognise him at first because he was dressed in black leggings and a plain black t-shirt rather than his bee costume, but the bee hat gave it away. “Where’s your costume? You’re just wearing the hat, why?”

“Th-They took it,” Harry stammered. Louis noticed his whole body was shivering. “They took my costume. I managed to hold onto my hat, but…What’s the use of my hat? I’m g-gonna get fired!”

Tears started rolling down Harry’s cheeks and Louis knelt in front of him. The fresh cuts on his face shone under the liquid of his salty tears. “Listen man, let’s get you back to my place, you can have a cup of hot chocolate or something and then I can get you home, Zayn can drive, it’ll all gonna be okay.”

“No,” Harry denied, shaking his head frantically. “No, I’ve taken enough from you already, and I know that you don’t like me.”

“I never said I didn’t like you. I just said you seem useless.”

“That means the same to me.” Harry climbed to his feet and pulled his leggings up a bit. He looked kinda stupid, a young guy in leggings, but Louis supposed he was usually covered by a giant bee costume so it’s not like it was just a weird fashion choice.

Harry swung his backpack full of honey over his shoulder and started to walk away. Louis could hear that all the honey jars inside it were broke, clattering around together to make an awful noise. Louis tried not to admire the kid’s bum in leggings.

“Listen, Harry-”

“I don’t want your charity, Louis. You’ve made it clear you want nothing to do with me.”

“It’s not _charity,_ I just wanna help a friend who’s just been attacked!”

 _“Friend?”_ Harry scoffed. “Friends? Friends?! Friends,” he repeated, shaking his head in disbelief. “We’re not friends, Louis. We’re just two guys who’ve met in the street a few times. You’re just another guy who’s broken my honey jar.”

“Hey, you almost broke something of mine, too! I didn’t see it at first but there was a tiny crack at the top of my screen after I dropped my phone, because I collided with _you_!”

“Yeah, because _you_ were texting and walking! That should be illegal y’know, I’m gonna protest.”

“Listen do you want my help or not?”

“Not.”

“Fine. Fuck off then.”

Louis stormed away. He seemed to do his fair share of storming around these days. He really hoped he wasn’t turning into a dickhead.

(◕‿◕✿)

Louis and Zayn stepped over a puddle of honey as they walked down the street Louis usually bumped into Harry on. Neither of them said anything. They were walking to work together but they weren’t really on speaking terms after Louis had made the mistake of telling Zayn what had happened on his way home from work last night.

“Have a good day,” Louis muttered as they reached the point where they had to go separate ways. Zayn blanked him.

Louis was pretty pissed at being given the cold shoulder by his roommate but they fought all the time and he was pretty sure by the time he got home that night Zayn would have forgotten the whole thing. It just upset him, because he genuinely hadn’t done anything wrong! He’d offered to take Harry in for the evening, give him a bit of company and make him feel better, it was Harry who’d rejected the offer!

When Louis got to the street his studio was on, there was a boy reading one of his posters. He wasn’t wearing a bee costume, but Louis recognised him.

“I’m perfect for this job you know,” he muttered as Louis walked up and stood beside him, giving him a disapproving look.

“I’m not sure you are.”

“You don’t know me.”

“I know you’re incapable of transporting a jar of honey through London without breaking it.”

Harry spun on his heel and looked at Louis with eyes filled with rage, arms crossed tightly. “Well how much honey do you deal with in a photography studio? And is it usually filled with horrible ASBO kids throwing stones at people?”

“Yes. Yes it is.”

“You’re impossible!” Harry cried, throwing his hands up. Louis wasn’t sure if the tears in his eyes were from anger or hurt. He pretended it was the former, so he didn’t have to feel guilty about it. Not that he would anyway.

“I’m super organised and I’m really good at making coffee and tea and stuff and I don’t mind being told what to do and-”

“Harry, stop.”

The bee boy sighed and took a step back, leaning against the lamp post. “I lost my job.”

“Why?”

“Because those boys smashed all my honey and stole my costume.”

“Why couldn’t your company just buy you a new costume?”

“What, for the ninth time?”

“Really? Ninth?”

“Well, maybe I was exaggerating,” Harry murmured. He took a few minutes to think about it and count on his fingers. “Or not. It would be the ninth time, yeah.”

“You must have done something pretty awful to those boys for them to torture you like that.”

Harry cried out in anger, throwing his arms up, _again._

“Y-You…“ he stammered, speechless, unable to get his words out. “They’re _bullies,_ Louis! I never did anything! I…I…” He covered his face with his hands, and Louis just kinda stood and watched. Until Harry’s shoulders started shaking. Shit, he’d made a poor innocent bee cry.

Louis took a step forward and laid a hand on his upper arm. “Listen…I could…I could maybe give you a trial. If you’d like that.”

Harry slowly dropped his hands. “A-Are you sure?”

“Well, no. But it’s just a trial. Just for like, a week. You can start on Monday, and then you can go. Unless you’re good enough.”

“I’ll be good enough Louis, I promise!” Harry said, voice giddy, a huge smile protruding on his face. He threw his arms around the shorter man’s shoulder and squeezed tight. Louis stood stiff, awkward and uncomfortable.

“Well, I’ll hold you to that.”

(◕‿◕✿)

“Perfect, that’s perfect, hold that pose, yesss, beautiful! Okay, we’re done. You wanna check out some of these shots over a cup of tea?”

Candice nodded, her perfected fake smile still on her face, and stepped behind the camera to stand beside Louis. “Actually, I’ll have coffee please. Black, no sugar.”

“You heard that Harry,” Louis barked, opening up the pictures on the LCD screen on the back of his camera.

“Coming right up,” Harry sang, shimmying into the kitchenette.

He had been on his trial as Louis’ assistant for three days now, and the whole studio had been feeling so much more happy and positive. But of course, Louis could not admit that.

He still slumped around the place being a grump and shouting at anyone who dare do something he even slightly disagreed with. Inside, he was actually kind of happy, he just couldn’t show it, cos then Harry might think he _liked him_ or something.

Which he didn’t.

Not at all.

Or maybe he liked him a whole lot. Louis couldn’t tell.

After the shoot with Candice was done and Harry was helping him store all his equipment away safely, Louis decided it was about time he actually talked to the boy. He knew nothing about him, except that he was nineteen years old, used to advertise honey dressed as a giant bee, and was pretty darn good at making coffee and moving camera equipment around.

“So Harry,” he began, voice almost catching in his throat as he attempted to start a conversation. “Where do you live?”

“Oh, just two streets down from you. Sycamore Street. The Sycamore tree got cut down though, I guess. I live in probably the tiniest flat on the street, at least I will for the next month maybe, got just about enough saved from the honey job to pay the rent until then.”

Another thing Louis knew about Harry was that he talked a whole lot. Maybe more than he should.

“It’s only one bedroom. It’s kind of lonely, but I bought a fish. Hufflepuff, she was called. I like Harry Potter. Do you like Harry Potter?”

“Oh, uh…” Louis hadn’t exactly been listening, but it sounded like a question, so he hazarded a guess at what the right answer might be. “Yes?”

“Perfect! Maybe we could watch it together then, you said we were friends, after all. It’s not like you’re my boss. I want you to be my boss though. Hopefully this whole gig will work out, or I might have to sell all my plants, and I might have to move somewhere else. Westminster is kind of expensive, maybe I could find the same kind of flat but cheaper in, I don’t know, Slough?”

“Slough’s a bit far away, Harry.”

“Yeah, but it’s where The Office was set, and I like The Office.”

“Fair enough. I do too, actually. Got the box set.”

“Really?!” Harry gasped, excited. “Can I come round? We can watch it! I don’t have a TV at home. Please?”

Louis was going to say no without even thinking about it, but he looked into Harry’s eyes, and they were so round and bright like a little puppy who wanted a treat, and it was enough to make Louis melt. And drop his tripod on his foot.

“Shit, shit, shit!”

“You’re always getting hurt, aren’t you Louis?” Harry smirked. “Is it me?”

“No. Of course not.”

 _It’s not like you make me feel strangely flustered and hot like a little girl under the eyes of her crush,_ he thought to himself. _Not at all._

“So are you free tonight?”

(◕‿◕✿)

“Brought a bee home again?”

“Shut up Zayn.”

“You know I’m scared of bees!”

“Shut _up,_ Zayn. God, you sound like my dad. Thinks every little thing he says is hilarious when really-”

“Heeey, don’t be mean to my friend Zayn,” Harry giggled. He was sat at one end of the sofa, and Louis was sat at the other, so Harry slid aaaall the way up to Louis so Zayn could fit. Their thighs were touching. Zayn had more than enough room. Harry was pressed so close to Louis that they could probably fit three Zayns in the gap he’d left.

Zayn smirked at them, and sat down. Louis returned a dirty look.

“So what are we watching?”

“The Office.”

“UK or US?”

“UK.”

“Ugh, I’m going to play Fifa. Have a nice night, love birds.” Zayn flung himself off the sofa and into his bedroom. Harry and Louis could hear Fifa starting.

“Huh, love birds,” Harry scoffed.

“Just ignore him, he loves teasing me. You can move back up now…If you want.”

“Nah, I’m fine here.”

“Oh.”

Louis twiddled his thumbs. He watched Ricky Gervais make cringey jokes. He stared at his lap. He thought about donuts. He did anything to avoid paying any actual attention to Harry. After a few episodes he decided he would stretch and yawn dramatically.

Ideally, it would have indicated that he was tired and wanted Harry to go home.

In reality, Harry took it as a romantic gesture and snuggled into Louis’ side.

Louis cursed himself. He sat stiff for a few minutes, and then he…well, he melted. His arm wrapped around Harry’s shoulder and he went lax, comfortable in their position which was dangerously close to a cuddle.

The boy smelt good. He smelt like cologne, and he smelt a bit like the coffee he had been making all day, but most of all he smelt like honey. Louis guessed that Harry must have actually been passionate about the product he had spent long days advertising in that lumbering bee costume while delinquent teenage chavs threw stones at him.

He looked down at Harry, he wanted to look at those beautiful eyes, a stunning pale green - like pond water, but Louis liked ponds so that was okay. He liked frogs, too. And burgers. He found, however, that Harry’s eyes were drooping shut. The boy was falling asleep.

Should he wake him before he was totally gone? Should he leave him? They were going to work at the same place at the same time tomorrow, anyway. Maybe Louis should let him crash on his couch instead of going home to his tiny, lonely flat. But he had a fish.

“Do you need to feed Hufflepuff?”

“Dead.”

“Oh.”

Harry fell asleep on Louis’ shoulder.

(◕‿◕✿)

“Hey Harry?” Louis said on the way to work the next morning. Things were kind of awkward, seeing as they’d ended up falling asleep in each other’s arms and waking up in the early hours of the morning to move themselves to more suitable locations - meaning Louis went to bed and Harry stayed on the couch pretending Louis was still there.

“Yeah?”

“I’ve got a fancy dinner Saturday night. Wanna be my plus one?”

“Sounds fabulous!”

(◕‿◕✿)

 

Louis had been feeling a whole lot of regret.

He had a dinner, a very fancy dinner, with a lot of other fashion photographers. A lot of them were rich, successful photographers. Sure, Louis had photographed some pretty big names and had been featured in some pretty big magazines, but he still couldn’t afford to move out of his cramped flat with Zayn Malik, king of dad jokes, and his snake named Simon who still creeped Louis the fuck out after three years. Basically, he considered himself a flop.

And he had invited his assistant as his plus one. No, not even his assistant. His trial assistant (although admittedly, he was pretty good, although Louis couldn’t quite figure out if he was actually good or if he just had very low expectations after having Niall for so long).

His huge, lanky, dorky, adorable trial assistant with giant eyes and the most charming smile in the land. But he was hardly in the league of people who would be at this dinner. Not because he wasn’t pretty damn gorgeous, but because he was a dork.

Louis had been feeling a whole lot of regret, until he saw Harry in a suit.

“It fits perfectly!” Zayn cried gleefully, clapping his hands together.

“Yeah, it does,” Harry responded quietly. Louis could tell in his voice that he was trying to contain the excitement. He looked himself over in the hallway mirror a few times before a huge smile grew on his face. “I actually look kinda good. Thanks for letting me borrow it, Zayn.”

Louis had to admit that he did actually look kinda good. Maybe even more than kinda good. Miraculously, Zayn’s suit did fit him perfectly. Harry was a bit taller than Zayn but Louis remembered poking fun at his roommate every time they went out in suits because his pants tripped him over and his sleeves hid his fingers.

But on Harry the suit was brilliant. The jacket slid off his shoulders delicately and he had left the top buttons of the shirt undone, letting two bird tattoos on his chest peek through. The tattoos honestly surprised Louis, as he had never seen Harry as the type. His own bird tattoo, on his arm, began to itch.

The pants cut high enough to show off the Chelsea boots that Harry had dug out of his closet, and they framed his bum beautifully. It wasn’t a big bum, but it definitely achieved Louis’ standards of squeezeableness. Not that he was looking. Or that he had any intention of squeezing Harry’s bum, not ever.

 _Well, never say never_ , Louis thought to himself.

“It’s definitely a step up from the bee costume,” Louis muttered as Harry did a twirl in front of the mirror. Harry barked in laughter and Louis willed his cheeks to stop turning red.

“Sorry to say it Lou, but I think Harry’s gonna outshine you at this dinner.”

Louis slapped Zayn on the arm. “Wrong. No one outshines me, I am Louis Tomlinson!”

“Yeah, and you’ve got a soup stain on your tie.”

Louis sighed and went off to change his tie, reminding himself not to fall for this dorky guy in a bee costume on his way out, even if he _was_ wearing a suit now.

(◕‿◕✿)

“Okay, so remember what I said?”

“The small cutlery is for the starters, the big cutlery is for the main course, I _cannot_ ask for jelly for dessert, no stupid jokes, no rambling on about different types of honey, and if anyone asks, I’m a friend, not an assistant.”

“Okay, good boy. You ready?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be!”

Louis opened one of the huge double doors that lead into the Chiltern Firehouse and prompted Harry to go in first with a hand pressing into the small of his back. Harry entered, and looked around in wonder.

“Wow, this place is… _amazing_!”

“Harry, we’re pretending to be posh tonight,  so you can’t act so taken aback by the Chiltern Firehouse of all places. Understood?”

“Understood,” Harry sighed.

The whole place was booked out for the party/dinner thing. Louis gave his name to the lady on the door and kept his hand on the small of Harry’s back as they were lead to their table. Louis thanked the gods above that he was placed on a table with someone he recognised.

“Louis!”

“Nick!”

Nick stood up and enveloped Louis in a huge, tight hug, and then he stepped back and gave Harry the once over.

“This your boyfriend?”

“N-”

“Yep!” Harry answered with vigour, holding his hand out for Nick to shake. Louis made some sputtering noises and then gave up when he realised no words were going to come out no matter how hard he tried.

“Are you gonna introduce us or just stand there looking like a lemon?” Harry giggled. Louis wanted to squeeze Harry’s head like a fucking lemon.

“Harry, this is Nick Grimshaw, a _very_ famous fashion photographer. Nick, this is Harry, my…boyfriend.”

“Nice to meet you!” Nick grinned as he sat back in his seat beside a very glamorous and beautiful woman. “You know, I’ve been waiting so long for Louis to get a nice boyfriend. He had that Liam guy for a while, total thug, covered in ugly tattoos, looked like a professional wrestler. Are you not going to sit down?”

“Um, w-we’re just gonna go to the bathroom first,” Louis stammered nervously, grabbing Harry’s hand and pulling him at record speed towards the restrooms.

“For crying out loud Harry!” he cried as the men’s room door swung shut. “What happened to ‘if anyone asks you’re a friend,’ huh?!”

“Oh, you said friend? I thought you said boyfriend,” Harry winked. He had the fucking audacity to wink! Louis huffed loudly and kicked a stall door.

“You…You…I can’t believe you!”

“What, you don’t want to impress your fancy friends with a gorgeous boyfriend?”

“Gorgeous?! Okay, you may look good in that suit, and you may have impeccable cheekbones, and you may have a bum that I could squeeze all day, and you may have eyes like a fucking Labrador but you’re not…You’re not…”

Harry looked at him expectantly, a sort of disbelieving but equally cocky smile on his face.

“Okay, maybe you’re kind of gorgeous. But only a bit. And you’re a massive dork.”

“Yeah, and you love it.”

Louis wanted to slap Harry’s smirk off his face.

“Oh shut up.”

(◕‿◕✿)

“But he was such a nice guy, he was hilarious when I visited!”

“Nick, we’ve had ambulances round the studio three times in the past month to pick Niall up. He dropped a sausage in a toaster and tried to fish it out with a fork, for crying out loud. And back in August he brought a live baboon into the studio. I asked for _balloons_!”

Harry laughed loudly round a mouthful of jelly – another rule he had broken – and spat half of it all over Nick’s glamourous girlfriend Cindy’s beautiful white dress. Cindy looked outraged, as did Louis, but Nick and Harry were in hysterics for a good thirty seconds.

“Nick, darling, it’s getting late. Barnaby is probably sat outside the door waiting to come in.”

“We got a cat flap for a reason Cindy.”

“He’s a _dog!_ Come on, let’s go.”

Nick sighed and nodded, pulling his napkin off his lap and throwing it on top of his now empty dessert plate. “I’ll see you guys sometime soon then. You still up for that Harry Potter marathon we talked about Haz?”

“Yeah! I’ll text you in the next few days about that, yeah?”

“Yeah, of course. And Nick, I’ll pop round to the studio sometime soon, see if you’ve got a decent replacement for Niall. Bye boys.”

“Byeee,” Harry and Louis sang in unison. Louis tried not to show how angry it made him that Nick and Harry had hit it off immediately.

They were alone now.

The majority of the large dinner party had left the Chiltern Firehouse at this point in the evening, but Harry, Louis, Nick and Cindy had stayed quite late, laughing the night away. Well, Nick and Harry had laughed the night away. Louis and Cindy had just watched disapprovingly.

Louis sighed and leant back in his seat. He was pretty tired, and he could tell Harry was too as the shine in his beautiful eyes was fading. Louis had seen those eyes in his dreams a few times now; it was becoming kind of hard not to fall for the dork in the bee costume, especially now there was no bee costume.

“Wanna go on a walk around Marylebone?” he suggested. “There’s some beautiful houses, and Christmas lights.”

“I love Christmas lights.”

“Come on then.”

Louis climbed to his feet and adjusted himself a little so his suit was less wrinkled. He kept his hand on the small of Harry’s back as they left the restaurant, thanking the waitress on the way out. Louis kinda felt like his hand fit there perfectly. But that was probably because he had a really tiny hand. And it certainly wasn’t romantic, not at all.

It was pretty chilly outside, a shimmering winter frost settling on walls and car roofs, so Louis pulled his sheepskin coat close around him. They’d gotten about half way down the street when they spotted the first Christmas lights. Louis noticed Harry wasn’t wearing a coat.

“I love Christmas lights.”

“Do you want to wear my coat, Harry?”

“We never had them when I was a kid. Well we did, up until I was about three. But my mum loved Christmas, so when she died, my dad couldn’t bear to celebrate it anymore. I didn’t get presents or anything, only cards from my friends at school.”

“Harry, you’re shaking. Take my coat.”

“We didn’t have Christmas dinner. I made it for myself last year; that was the first time I’ve had Christmas dinner since I was a toddler.”

Louis sighed, peeling off his coat and wrapping it around Harry’s shoulders. He moved back beside Harry, letting the boy slip his arms through the sleeves himself. The coat was a bit tight on him.

“I’m sorry about your mum.”

“It’s okay. I don’t miss her or anything. I know that sounds bad, but how can you miss something you can’t remember?”

“That’s true. I don’t miss my mum, either.”

“Oh. Is she dead, too?”

“No. But she may as well be. I haven’t talked to her since I came out when I was fifteen.”

The two boys were silent for a few minutes, admiring the Christmas lights.

“ _You’re_ shaking now. Have your coat back.”

“No. I hardly feel the cold.”

“Oh, ok. I’ve been here once before you know, there’s a cute little pond down at the park. Do you wanna go? The ducks are so cute when they’re asleep.”

“Yeah, sure.” Louis did like ponds, after all.

They only got a few metres down the street before Louis felt Harry slip his hand into his. He didn’t protest. He just held it right back. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to fall for the dork in the bee costume after all.

(◕‿◕✿)

The ducks were still awake.

They swam towards Louis and Harry in a big, excited group, and lingered while the boys took a seat on the bench overlooking the pond. They swam away when they realised they didn’t have any bread. Louis knew that feeling of disappointment.

Harry wrapped his arm around Louis’ shoulders, and Louis lay a hand on his thigh. He worried that maybe he was being a bit forward, but so was Harry, so he guessed it didn’t matter that much.

“Can you believe that a week and a half ago I was dressed as a bee, repeating facts about honey all day with no money and no prospects in life, and now I’m sat here on a damp park bench with a really, really handsome guy?”

Louis scoffed. Blood rose in his cheeks – at least it warmed him up a bit. “But you still have no money and no prospects in life.”

“Hey, that’s not true, I can totally see myself as a photographer’s assistant for the foreseeable future!”

“Who said I was gonna give you the job?”

“Who said you were the photographer I was talking about?”

They both laughed quietly, and then went silent for a few moments, until Harry nudged Louis in the ribs. Louis looked up at Harry, looked into his beautiful pond water eyes.

“When you took me in for the first time last week, you said you’re not usually a nice guy. But I think you are. I think you’ve just had a hard time of it these past few years. You don’t want to be taken advantage of.”

“What are you, my shrink?” Louis harrumphed, ducking his head again.

“Nah, I’m just your friend,” Harry smiled. “Right?”

“We’ve known each other less than two weeks and so far you’ve been a random guy in a bee costume who almost broke my phone, my friend, my trial assistant, and my boyfriend. The whole thing has frazzled me a bit actually.”

“Nick thought we looked good together.”

“Nick’s an idiot.”

Harry nudged him again.

“You’re gonna fucking bruise- Oh.”

Harry bony fingers had a grasp around Louis’ chin, and their lips were pressed together, and Louis wasn’t quite sure how that had happened but he wasn’t complaining.

He still smelt of cologne and coffee and honey, and now a little bit like the gravy he’d spilt down himself at dinner, and Louis thought that was probably a smell he could get used to.

They finished kissing at least three minutes later, and Louis counted it as the longest and nicest kiss of his life. Harry had that familiar smirk on his face.

“So, how about that assistant job?”

**Author's Note:**

> find me on twitter @cloudyhes


End file.
